Mary Kay Sucks

I spend entirely too much time over on what used to be called the "Mary Kay Sucks" blog, but I'm sorry it is so addicting. Well, I read this post today and it literally describes my story to a T. Amazing how so many of these stories and real life situations are exactly what I experienced in Mary Kay and could see coming down the pike.

Here is the quote from today's post:

Maybe it’s time to move some of our “I” or “me” stories into this section as all of you are aware how much data is really on this blog. I’ll go back and construct my story, luckily I wasn’t in it long enough to go too deeply into debt, but I did feel as though I was “conned” or coerced into this “opportunity”. When I was actually recruited, the frontloading happened and I was “convinced” that that was the only way to go as I had planned on holding skin care classes etc, to “make some money”. But as time went on, being a single mother, drawn away from my son and what really frustrated me more than anything was the lack of training which I was promised and I truly felt that the weekly meetings were soooooo much more about recruiting and finding “5 sharp women” to bring as a guest to our meetings. I actually made a “list” of those women and two of them were my customers. As time went on, I started thinking, why in the world would I want to “recruit” my customers!!?? That was a lightbulb moment for me, and then I was sick of the childish foolnishness which would happen at the meetings, that fakey smile my recruitor would slow out at us. The sad thing is, I really do like her and I believe that she’s a good person if I could just get through that phony Mary Kay outer shell of hers. I wonder if she’s really as sweet as she appears to be. So as time went on, for each meeting, internally, I hated using up all of my samples (but I was thinking I was just being greedy/selfish), but ya know what, I PAID for those samples for MY business, not to use at training sessions to put on my own face all the time. Then they (recruitor and director) kept saying you should just buy the full size products to use instead of samples, because you could write those off as demos/supplies for your business on your tax return. Of course, they also told me that whatever make up, nail polish etc, that I purchased for my own personal use could be taken as a tax deduction too because I was “demonstrating” the product. Puleez…..I really wondered about that one.

So I started searching the internet, because God Forbid if you even hinted to ANY negativity at your weekly “training (aka: recruiting”) sessions. (that always used to get me too, I’m sooooo glad I NEVER brought a guest) and of course, none of my friends wanted to ever hear anything I had to say about Mary Kay. In the beginning, I was spewing Mary Kay. I even tried to warm chatter with my perfume samples. That poor girl!! I live in a small town and I’m guessing if that girl ever sees me again, she’ll probably avoid me like the plague. So glad I didn’t try to get her to hold a skin care class. That would have made it even worse!! Back to my internet search….I honestly don’t remember what I typed in, but I went searching for groups of other women who were in Mary Kay to see how they were running their business and I came across a few groups, some HOT pink (no negativity allowed there!!!), some mildly light pink, they still had issues with any negativity, because they were trying to do things the right way, but at that time, no negativity was allowed, no true feelings were allowed, no support was given for our feelings. So I FINALLY found a place where I could vent and get it “out of my system” to know I wasn’t alone. I just felt icky prior to going to the meetings, then of course, after the meetings, felt that maybe, just maybe I could do this (ahh, brainwashing at work (learned that one later too). I held the product for about one year and returned it in time to maximize my return and for some reason, I still feel “addicted” to this blog? I wonder why, I’ve said it sooooo many times, why can’t I JUST let this go? Why are women finding this blog who left Mary Kay over 10 years ago and they’re saying things to us like, I am SO glad to now know that it WASN’T ME, it was the system of Mary Kay!! It amazes me how these women have struggled with this for so many years and they’re now just getting some validation to realize they truly weren’t losers or quitters. They were simply following their gut instincts and knew that something just didn’t smell right.

So anyway……..

I had no intention of writing my “I” story right this minute, but once it started flowing from my fingertips, I couldn’t stop, so here is my story. Shortlived as it may be, but nonetheless, my story. I am so glad that I got out when I did and that I was able to find online support to help me do what was best for me and my child. I still had my full time job which was a job I loved and still love doing to this day. I believe I’ve learned my lesson and I have no interest in ever trying to do Mary Kay again, mainly because it has such a bad name and people avoid a “mary kay” lady around my neck of the woods, like the friggin’ plague. They don’t want to host parties, they don’t want to hear it, because for a period of time, I know that the one who recruited me, tried to recruit (with some luck I might add) several others and as I mentioned earlier, we live in a very small town and this “recruitor” (very very short lived director I might add too - she couldn’t keep up production and also got a divorce -claims it was his fault, but I REALLY have my doubts about that one too), but she could sure sell that product though!!. She alienated many of these women from the thought of even being involved with Mary Kay because she was sooooo pushy. I’ve talked to others and her name always came up. I wish I could rescue her more than she knows, but the last I checked, she didn’t feel as though she needed to be rescued, so I’ll just check back in with her from time to time. She’s aware of this blog and I wonder if she’s been reading all this time. Something tells me that she might, but she won’t admit I’m sure. Why do I care? Why do I want to ’save’ her? Crazy huh……

source:

Could it be?